ha_ecovacs_bumper/protocol.md

Ecovacs Protocol

There are two protocols involved in the communication between the client and Ecovacs systems. There are a series of HTTPS requests used to log in and find devices. Once logged in, you get a token that is used to connect to an XMPP server, which mediates communication with the vacuum. That's right, your robot housecleaner, like an errant teen, spends all its free time hanging out in an internet chat room.

This is all taken from MITMing the Android app. The iOS app appears to follow the same protocol conventions.

Location

It appears that Ecovacs have broken up their API servers by location. Some are designated by country, others by continent. All appear to use the two-letter ISO codes, but at this time it doesn't look like all codes map to valid servers.

The HTTPS and XMPP servers do not appear to be following the same convention. For example, a Canadian user must authenticate on country-specific HTTPS server, but XMPP commands work both on the worldwide server msg-ww.ecouser.net) and the North America server (msg-na.ecouser.net)

HTTPS

There are two sorts of URLs in the basic login flow. The first set use a format like this:

    https://eco-{country}-api.ecovacs.com/v1/private/{country}/{lang}/{deviceId}/{appCode}/{appVersion}/{channel}/{deviceType}

They also have a complicated API request signature that seems overelaborate to me. See the Python code for more details.

1. GET eco-us-api.ecovacs.com ... common/checkVersion - appears to just check the app version
2. GET eco-us-api.ecovacs.com ... user/login - Sends encrypted versions of the username and password. The response is some json containing a uid and access token.
3. GET eco-us-api.ecovacs.com ... user/getAuthCode - sends uid, accessToken; gets back an auth code

Now we switch to posting to a different server, and the request and response style change substantially. I think of this at the user server, or perhaps the XMPP/device server.

4. POST users-na.ecouser.net:8000/user.do loginByItToken - trades the authCode from the previous call for yet another token
5. POST ne-na.ecouser.net:8018/notify_engine.do - not sure what this is for; my script skips this and seems to work fine
6. POST users-na.ecouser.net:8000/user.do GetDeviceList - Using the token from step 4, gets the list of devices; that's needed for talking to the vacuum via XMPP

XMPP

The app establishes a connection to an XMPP server and logs in using a secret that comes from the earlier HTTPS calls. It then sends XMPP IQ commands. It describes them as queries, but they all contain "ctl" elements that appear to be commands.

Cleaning

Command

• <ctl td="Clean"><clean type="auto" speed="standard"/></ctl>

State

• Request <ctl td="GetCleanState" />
• Response <ctl td="CleanReport"><clean type="stop" speed="standard" /></ctl>
  • type auto automatic cleaning program
  • type border edge cleaning program
  • type singleroom cleaning a single room
  • type stop bot at full stop
  • speed standard regular fan speed (suction)
  • speed strong high fan speed (suction)

Charging

Command

• <query xmlns="com:ctl"><ctl td="Charge"><charge type="go"/></ctl>

  • go order bot to return to charger

• Request <query xmlns="com:ctl"><ctl td="GetChargeState" />

• Response <ctl td="ChargeState"><charge type="SlotCharging" /></ctl>

  • Idle not trying to charge
  • Going trying to return to charger
  • SlotCharging currently charging in dock
  • WireCharging currently charging by cable

Note: It appears the bot can be in an active CleanState (i.e. auto) as well as in an active ChargeState (i.e. SlotCharging). The assumption is that in this case, the cleaning task will resume after the bot is sufficiently charged. More testing is needed.

Battery State

Battery charge level. 080 = 80% charged.

• Request <ctl td="GetBatteryInfo" />
• Response <ctl td="BatteryInfo"><battery power="080" /></ctl>

Component lifespan

The remaining lifespan of components. Based on an internal counters that can be reset with command ResetLifeSpan (untested).

It's presumed that the timers need to be reset manually.

• Request <ctl td="GetLifeSpan" type="Brush" />
• Response <ctl td="LifeSpan" type="Brush" val="095" total="365" />
  • Brush
  • SideBrush
  • DustCaseHeap

Manually moving around

To stop the current action, issue the stop action.

Command

• <ctl td="Move"><move action="forward"/></ctl>
• <ctl td="Move"><move action="SpinLeft"/></ctl>
• <ctl td="Move"><move action="SpinRight"/></ctl>
• <ctl td="Move"><move action="stop"/></ctl>
• <ctl td="Move"><move action="TurnAround"/></ctl>

Errors

The bot broadcasts error codes for a number of cases.

<ctl td="error" error="BatteryLow" errno="101"></ctl>

The latest error can be requested like so:

• Request <ctl td="GetError" />
• Response <ctl ret="ok" errs="100"/>

However in some cases the robot sends to code 100 shortly after an error has occurred, meaning that we cannot trust the GetError request to contain the last error. For example, if the robot gets stuck it broadcasts 102 HostHang, thenproceeds to stop and broadcasts 100 NoError.

Known error codes

• 100 NoError (back to normal)
• 101 BatteryLow
• 102 HostHang (bot is stuck)
• 103 WheelAbnormal
• 104 DownSensorAbnormal

Untested commands

<ctl td="GetOnOff" />
<ctl id="102461185" ret="ok" on="0"/>

<ctl id="12351409" td="PlaySound" sid="0"/>

<ctl id="13259797" td="SetTime"><time t="1509622697" tz="-7"/></ctl>

<ctl id="30800321" td="GetSched"/>

It appears that it adds an extra id when it cares to receive a specific response. This is a little odd in that the iq blocks already contain ids, but perhaps one is more a server id and the other is used by the robot itself.